Stage Buzz
Nico Muhly preview
Nico Muhly Lakeshore Theater, Chicago Thursday, August 28, 2008 I once interviewed a rock guitarist who claimed he could find musical inspiration in any mundane, common, everyday sound. Nico Muhly agrees.
Jazz Festival preview
Sonny Rollins | Ornette Coleman Jazz Festival, Chicago Thursday, August 28 | Sunday, August 31, 2008 The battle of the saxes highlights the Chicago Jazz Festival this year, featuring a pair of giants in Sonny Rollins and Ornette Coleman.
Delta Spirit preview
Delta Spirit Schubas, Chicago Sunday, August 31, 2008 By selecting the word “spirit” for their band name, San Diego’s Delta Spirit provide a too-easy-to-bypass avenue from which dissect their sound. Their debut, Ode To Sunshine (Rounder), has a helluva lot of familiar aurae around it.
Koufax preview
Koufax Bottom Lounge, Chicago Saturday, August 23, 2008 Koufax’s fourth album, Strugglers (Doghouse), belongs to Kansas City jazz-meister Mark Southerland. Head Koufax honcho Robert Suchan at turns delivers sweaty Jack White-isms and even shares a range with What Made Milwaukee Famous’ Michael Kingcaid, but when the 10-track disc ends, it’s Southerland’s horns that will continue […]
Indigenous preview
Indigenous Martyrs’, Chicago Saturday, August 23, 2008 Indigenous frontman/guitarist Mato Nanji’s past, upbringing, and musical journey are not only interesting stories, but unusual. Too bad the same can’t be said for his band’s music.
Racebannon preview
Racebannon Beat Kitchen, Chicago Friday, August 15, 2008 The rise of MP3s has precipitated the demise of album artwork. Rebelling against thumbnail incarceration, Kanye West’s Graduation used anime to hint at its electro contents, and Miley Cyrus’ Breakout distilled the oppression felt by teenage multi-millionaires. But rarely do you see anything as iconic as, say, […]
Hawthorne Heights preview
Hawthorne Heights Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI Saturday, August 16, 2008 Tragedy, strife, legal woes, and bitter divorces – all can lead to stellar artistic output. Just ask Bob Dylan. The brilliant Blood On The Tracks stemmed from Dylan’s wife Sara handing him divorce papers after little more than a decade of marriage. Sure, it’s […]
Faun Fables, Festival preview
Faun Fables | Festival Schubas | Empty Bottle, Chicago Friday, August 15 | Monday, August 18, 2008 Two psych folk groups, both female-fronted and predominantly female-filled, and each with some level of connection to Drag City (Faun Fables is on the label; Drag distributes Festival’s music) play Chicago within three days of each other. We’re […]
Bodies Of Water preview
Bodies Of Water Schubas, Chicago Thursday, August 7, 2008 Call them a darker, more sinister companion to England’s the Magic Numbers, minus the whole brother/sister pairing, sunshine-on-your-shoulders attitude masking deeper scars.
Rue Royale preview
Rue Royale Schubas, Chicago Friday, August 8, 2008 Well Chicago, Rue Royale is leaving. Yep, less than a year after releasing its breathtaking debut full-length, the group bids farewell with this Schubas gig. But in all fairness, it was never really “ours,” anyway.
Amos Lee preview
Amos Lee Park West, Chicago Monday, August 11, 2008 Though it’s a prevalent theme on his newest record, Last Days At The Lodge, struggle hasn’t been much of factor in Amos Lee’s musical career so far. That’s not to trash talk Lee or brand him a dislikable silver spooner, only to say if he doesn’t […]
Dokken preview
Dokken First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Tinley Park Sunday, August 3, 2008 Because it’s protocol for some rock critics to hate, or pretend to hate, anything associated with ’80s metal, some of you will surely accuse us of ripping on Dokken’s Lightning Strikes Again (Rhino) simply because of their hair metal roots. The IE editorial staff, […]
Cross Examination preview
Cross Examination Reggie’s Rock Club, Chicago Monday, August 4, 2008 Ironically, the tour calling itself Thrash And Burn that stops at the Pearl Room in Mokena Monday night is not be the thrashiest show in Chicagoland that evening.
Bryan Adams preview
Bryan Adams Sears Centre, Hoffman Estates Tuesday, August 5, 2008 The joke at the IE office focuses on the fantasy that if only Sting made an appearance at the Rod Stewart/Bryan Adams double-bill next week, the ad hoc trio could perform “All For Love” from the 1993 Kiefer Sutherland film, The Three Musketeers.
Tilly And The Wall preview
Tilly And The Wall Abbey Pub, Chicago Wednesday, August 6, 2008 Garth Algar, standing over our shoulder while we read the newest Tilly And The Wall press release, declared, as he once did on the set of “Wayne’s World”: “We fear change.” He needn’t.
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